Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenner, Edward

820707Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18 — Fenner, Edward1889John Andrew Hamilton

FENNER, EDWARD (d. 1612), judge, son of John Fenner of Crawley, Sussex, by Ellen, daughter of Sir William Goring of Burton, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and was reader in the autumn of 1576. He was M.P. for Shoreham in 1572. He became a serjeant in Michaelmas term 1577, and enjoyed a large practice. He was appointed a judge of the king's bench on 26 May 1590, and was J.P. for Surrey. Though not a prominent member of the court, he was in the commission upon several state trials, and, before becoming a judge, was present as a justice of the peace at the trial of John Udall, January 1590. In 1593 he tried three witches in Huntingdonshire, and a pamphlet account of this trial was published. In January 1608 he received a grant of an annuity of 50l. during the time his services on circuit were discontinued. He died 23 Jan. 1612, and was buried at Hayes in Middlesex. He had one son, Edward, who died without issue in 1615.

[Foss's Judges of England; Dallaway's Parochial Topography of Chichester, i. 16; State Trials, i. 1297; Coke's Reports, p. 1; Green's Domestic State Papers, 1603–10; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 402.]

J. A. H.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.121
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

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319 i 10 Fenner, Edward: after 1576. insert He was M.P. for Shoreham in 1572.